Biglaw Giant Matches Associate Raises, PLUS Special Summer Bonuses!
Raises are nice, but raises plus special bonuses are even better.
Now the party has motherf*cking started! Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has come to play in the associate compensation game. They become the first Biglaw firm with gross revenue over 1 billion dollars to match the new scale for associate compensation set by Milbank earlier this week.
That’s nice and all… but wait, there’s more.
They also announced summer bonuses, and not in small, inconsequential sums. It ranges, based on seniority, from $5,000 for first-years to an impressive $25,000 for the classes of 2010-2012. That’ll buy baby a nice new pair of shoes.
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The new compensation scale at Simpson is as follows:
Class of 2017 $190,000
Class of 2016 $200,000
Class of 2015 $220,000
Class of 2014 $250,000
Class of 2013 $275,000
Class of 2012 $295,000
Class of 2011 $315,000
Class of 2010 $330,000
Summer associates will also have the windfall applied to their paychecks.
As one tipster noted:
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IT IS A GOOD YEAR, A GOOD GOOD YEAR
Now we get to speculate about how this will impact the rest of the market. Will other firms match the summer bonus? Will this shame other big-name firms into finally matching the new associate scale? Are the bonuses designed to be a preemptive strike in case Cravath, or another big player, decides to come over the top and raise the base salary to $200,000? Will the summer bonus impact associates’ end-of-year bonuses? Only time will tell how this all plays out.
Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of this stuff. So when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches Milbank”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.
And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we’ll also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish.
Read the full Simpson memo on the next page.
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What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life?
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
